Oh. Thanks.

So I am trying to break my habit of only strumming down. Do you guys who strum up and down do it all the time, or just for the fast stuff? Right now I'm trying to do it all the time, but it seems like a bit of a hassle for the slow stuff.

i do it all the time (up/down)

if they are switching up tempo, or have notes that are held, I just hold that particle direction on the strum longer, until I alternate for the next note

I played GH1 a lot and a bit of GH2 on the ps2 and only ever used down strums. So I figured I'd start new with this game and learn alternating strumming from the get go. So I'm playing through medium now and trying to alt-strum everywhere it makes sense to. It did take a bit of getting used to, but I'm adjusting faster than I expected. Although I'm just doing medium and probably wouldn't have problems with just down strumming the whole thing, but I now can see places where alternate strumming definitely makes things easier.

I stil haven't managed to get the hang of alt strumming...I always find I 'over strum' with it...i'll keep trying. just down strumming is still working well enough for me on medium, but I'd like to improve my form for Hard and above.

I've started doing the alt strumming as well on each song. It is taking some getting used to, but I can tell id definetly helps on those songs with many notes in a row.

Occasionally I'll strum twice when I don't need to, but I'm still getting used to the strumming up and down. I was always using just down strumming previously.

The 5.1 surround sound almost makes the double dip worth it by itself. For some reason also, I'm enjoying the songs more on the 360 version. When I got the PS2 version, I was a little disappointed in that the songs weren't a whole lot of fun to play like the first song list. I guess maybe I knew what to expect this time and so my expectations aren't so high.

Still, I can't wait to play the GH setlist in 5.1 surround sound. 'More Than A Feeling' in surround sound, yes!

Good lord this game is a blast. I'm playing it on easy since it's my first time, and by the time I hit the fourth set of songs I nailed them all 5 star on the first run through.

Yeah, I have that same problem with strumming twice sometimes. I also find that I have a much harder time recovering when I screw up a couple notes.

Damn this game is addictive! I just finished playing 12 hours straight and my arms are killing me!

So who is going to be the first one here to modify they're x-plorer? Wireless, custom paint jobs, double neck, etc.

What exactly is your problem with the HO-POs? Unless they changed something for the 360 from the PS2 version (and according to one of the programmers I don't think they did) they should be exactly the same. They were perfect on the PS2, unless you thought they were too easy.

When you can hit passages like these two with a single strum (and only the Thunderhorse one is very tough), you know they are working just fine:


Edit: whoops, I didn't blur out enough of the Laid to Rest section. The fun HO/PO portion starts at measure 125 (it's also earlier on the song too).

Anyone know where a list of the 360 achievements can be found?

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/h...ail&gameID=195

its seems if you are doing a normal note + hammer + pull off, it works flawless. When it comes to note + hammer + hammer + pull off + hammer + pull off + pull off, its messed up.

Its sad, considering I find doing the real thing easier than on this guitar.

Not a single person has complained about this on the Scorehero forums and several of them with the 360 version are better players than I am. I'm sure they would have noticed if it was any different than the PS2. Either you have a defective guitar (probably not likely) or you're doing something wrong. Try it in practice mode on a slower speed.

Also several of the people on Scorehero have complained about SP activation with the Explorer. One guy said he'd tried 4 different guitars and they all had the same problem. The fix very possibly could be to take the guitar apart and re-jigger the tilt sensor, but I'd probably wait until someone else does it first

Some of those co-op achievements could be tough to get if you don't have a partner near your skill level.

it could be a question of learning the technique differently on this game, as opposed to doing on a real guitar.

I'm glad that it isn't just me having an issue with SP activation. I've given up trying to do it in the middle of a bunch of notes. Jerking the guitar around so much causes me to miss notes and incorrectly finger them. I will try when I have a long note or if there is a short break in notes before more start. I could probably have higher scores in some songs, but I don't want to lose multipliers trying to get a faulty sensor to trip and activate SP.

I've had a few songs that I've gone through with no SP activation and full star power bars.

i've had it go off on accident more times than its actually went off when im trying to get it too. I gave up on that shit, and just use the back button instead.


think of it as playing with your tone knob while on stage

Some achievements will be very hard and I think these are the ones that I'll never see.

300K Club 30
400K Club 30
Champagne Room V.I.P. 30
Yngwie Malmsteen Award 30
Hard Tour Champ 30
Expert Tour Champ 30
Guitarmaggedon Award 30
Start a Real Band Already Award 30
Kick the Bucket Award 30
Keef & Mick Award 30
400K Pair 30
600K Pair 30
800K Pair 30
Millionaire Pair 30

The other co-op ones I think I can get once I get a friend that has the game or buy a second guitar.

Achievement tips:

Highest scores in the game can be scored on X-Stream (discounting Freebird which is just stupidly tough but has tons of points). 500k should be possible with optimal star power even if you miss a note. The song isn't all that tough either if you can keep a pretty good rhythm. I'm sure it's a high scoring song on Hard difficulty as well. Monkey Wrench is another high scoring song, but it's more difficult than X-Stream because it's faster.

Playing co-op is a lot of fun, and scores really balloon because there's just so much Star Power. 400k co-op scores are nothing, and 600k might not be too bad if you can both keep a streak. My wife (who plays on Hard) and I have several songs above 600k, but haven't hit 800k yet.

WTF is a hammer and pull off?

Also, how can you hit those notes in a single strum? I thought oyu need one per note or chord?

Go through the tutorial, it explains hammer on and pull offs quite well.

alright, let me give you an example



lets say you are supposed to hit frets 1, 2, and 3, in consecutive order, but you don't want them all to be defined with a pick stroke, and you want the notes to flow into one another, in which case you would use something called "legato technique"

If I wanted to play something like that, with legato, you could pick the first note, then 'hammer-on' the 2nd, then the 3rd, which wouldn't require you to pick those other 2 notes. So, instead of using 3 pick strokes for 3 notes, you would use 1 pick stroke, and hammer-on the next two notes.

On a real guitar, you basically do legato on one string, which can kinda be translated to guitar hero, since you could few those 5 buttons as being 5 frets on one string.

A lot of guitarists use this technique to make themselves sound faster than their picking hand could keep up with


edit : to further illustrate, if you've ever seen a guitarist, like Hendrix, play with his teeth, he's actually not using his teeth at all. He is using all legato to sound the notes, and his picking hand isn't involved at all

basically, its just playing notes with your fretting hand without the use of your picking hand